Of course this does not apply to the educated Chinaman who is polished and gifted in speech as is the case with any well-trained Chinese clergyman or such as minister Wu Ting-Fang in Washington.
All debts among the Chinese are paid once a year, that is when their New Year comes around in our month of February.

There are three ways in which they may cancel their debts.

First, they pay them in money, if they are able, when accounts are cast up between creditor and debtor.

If in the second place they are unable to pay what they owe they assign all their goods and effects to their creditors, and then the debtor gets a clean bill and so starts out anew with a clear conscience for another year.

This in few words is the Chinese "Bankrupt Law." But, in the third place, if a man has no assets, if he be entirely impoverished, and cannot pay his debts, he considers it a matter of honour to kill himself.